Over Cereal and Ice Cream
by CelticGuardian117
Summary: Petunia and Lily have an argument, and Lily decides to leave the house. James and Lily meet up and it all begins a new friendship. A quick oneshot, that focuses on pre-Jily but can also be counted as Jily.


Lily was sitting out in the lawn. Just a few more days left, and she'd be off back to Hogwarts.

She felt so distant from the wizarding world now. Charlotte had written one last letter before she headed off for France, but Lily had not one other letter.

All she had was her sister, Petunia, as her parents has left for Japan, and her owl, Felix. Lily would have even been happy to talk to James Potter. It seemed, often, that Lily disliked James' company but more often than not, she was found missing their hilarious conversations and playful banter.

She had gotten her letter from Hogwarts, and she had been assigned Headgirl. It wasn't that Lily hadn't always wanted that post, because she had. It was merely that fact that, as Lily often broke the rules. She didn't feel the right person to take the post.

You will often hear that Lily Evans was a wonderful student, a goody-two-shoes, and a teacher's pet, who only cared about her grades. However, Lily had broken the rules more than once to pull off a prank or two. No one, except the marauders knew. The reveal had occurred when James had run into Lily as she put into place one of her amazing pranks.

Never had she been caught before, however, by a teacher and she prided herself in that. The marauders were quite the opposite. They often made _sure_ that the whole school knew it was them that pulled the prank, because they took pride in every prank and wished to be credited for it.

Lily had already packed her trunk, and she could have left any minute, but she couldn't. More than anything, she wanted to talk to Petunia. She wanted everything to be alright. She wanted Petunia to make her some cinnamon toast and hot cocoa, and she wanted them to sit together in the treehouse that they had shared since Lily was three. Just like they used to. But they couldn't.

It couldn't go back to normal because everything had changed too much for it to go back.

Lil retreated to the kitchen, and poured herself some cereal, as Petunia walked in. Lily nodded a good morning, but received a scowl. They sat together silently, with the slight crunch of cereal between their teeth. It was surprising that they had sat together so long without an argument, but Lily knew that Petunia needed to say something to her and was trying to figure out the way to go about it.

Petuia took a deep breath,

"My wedding's in a month." Lily nodded in acknowledgement. She was trying so very hard not to show what she was thinking. And what she was thinking, at this current moment, was that Petunia was finally inviting Lily to her wedding. Probably not as a bridesmaid, but Lily didn't mind too much. That would have been hoping for too much. But this was the very first time that Petunia had mentioned her wedding to Lily. Maybe…just maybe, it was a good sign.

"Mum's told me. Congratulations Petunia." Lily smiled at her sister, but Petunia did not look at her. Instead she turned her head rudely to the ground and ignored Lily's comment.

"You're not invited," Petunia spat quickly. Lily gasped a little. This was not what she expected. Petunia regained her arrogant demeanour,

"I haven't told my friends about you yet, and I don't mean to. It would be odd if a sister just suddenly appeared for the wedding." Lily nodded glumly,

"I-I understand."

"Good. And anyway, I'm sure that you wouldn't want to leave that freak-_school_ of yours, now that you've been made headgirl."

"How'd you kn-"

"Mum."

"But you _know_ that I wouldn't want to miss your wedding. H-How dare you! You really think I would skip on such an important day because of school?"

"Of course. You're Head girl, aren't you? I wonder why they would make you Headgirl, anyway? You're irresponsible and immature. You hardly make Headgirl material. You think Mum and Dad are proud of you?" Petunia scoffed, "Really, you're so delusional. I suppose you would make a good Headgirl for _that_ school. Head of the _freaks." _

"ALRIGHT!" Lily's voice turned into a whisper, "I've had enough. You win, Petunia. I've tried with you, and I'm at the end of my rope. I hope you're happy." Lily turned away, and retrieved her owl and trunk from her room.

"Where are you going?" Petunia asked, suddenly panicked. Lily sighed, but did not reply.

"COngradulations on your wedding." Lily whispered before she shut the door behind her on Petunia's awkward face. Lily didn't know where she would go, but she needed to leave.

She had walked quite far down the street before she realised that she had turned 17 a week ago. James had even sent her a necklace with a snitch pendant. She made her trunk small enough to fit into her pocket. She then shrunk Felix's cage and stowed that away before letting the owl fly away. She apparated to Diagon Alley. She would start there.

Lily was almost ready to burst into tears, but she did not let herself. She didn't want to cry in front of Petunia and she didn't want to cry in public either. Diagon Alley was crowded but not as stuffed as it usually was. She wandered aimlessly through the crooked streets before she heard a,

"Lily!" ring out from behind her. She stopped dead in her tracks. It was James. She heard footsteps and shut her eyes.

"Hey, do you want t-Lily?" She could her the frown in his voice as he said her name. She was surprised at the concern in his voice. How did her know?

"Lily?" James put his hands on her shoulders and softly turned her around. She didn't want to look at him, but James crouched a little so that he was looking up at her,

"Hey…what's wrong?" James asked softly. Lily felt overwhelmed by now. After what Petunia had said, she had felt so horrible. And the tone, of which James used for those three little words, had sounded so warm and kind…she wanted to cry. Lily hugged him, and burst into tears. James was a little shocked, but remained at his post.

"Hey, it's okay, Lils." He said as he rubbed her back. Lily didn't cry loudly, she wasn't a loud crier. Instead, she just whimpered into James' chest.

After a while, Lily had stopped crying, and they found themselves sitting at Fortescue's where James bought her an ice cream. Lily told him what was wrong over the chocolate ice cream that she refused to eat (Lily hated people paying for her. So in the end, James paid for Lily's ice cream and Lily paid for James'). After she had confessed what was wrong, there was a silence.

"Thank you," she said gratefully. James smiled,

"What are friends for, yeah?"

"Yeah." Lily blushed in happiness.

They sat in silence. It wasn't an awkward silence. In fact, it was far from it. They sat together, in that little ice cream parlour, cherishing each other's company, without a single word needed.


End file.
